LETHAL

‘Exceedingly High’ Amount of Fentanyl Found in Prince’s Body After Death

Music icon’s liver had concentration more than six times higher than what’s usually considered fatal.

An “exceedingly high” concentration of fentanyl was in Prince’s body at the time of his death in 2016, according to a toxicology report cited by the Associated Press. Public data released shortly after the music icon’s death in 2016 had suggested an accidental fentanyl overdose, but the toxicology report provides “a pretty clear smoking gun” the synthetic opioid was to blame, Dr. Lewis Nelson of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School was quoted as saying. The concentration of fentanyl in Prince’s blood was at 67.8 micrograms per liter, much higher than the levels generally seen in overdose cases. His liver had a concentration of 450 micrograms per liter, while anything higher than 69 micrograms is thought to be fatal. Prosecutors in the county where Prince died are still deciding whether to charge anyone in his death, but they said last week they hoped to make a decision “in the near future.”